The Politics of the Past in Russia

Author(s): Alexey Miller
Editor(s): Stephen Aris, Matthias Neumann, Robert Orttung, Jeronim Perovic, Heiko Pleines, Hans-Henning Schröder
Series: Russian Analytical Digest (RAD)
Issue: 72
Pages: 2-4
Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich; Research Centre for East European Studies, University of Bremen
Publication Year: 2010

Active political intervention in the politics of memory and the professional historian's sphere began no later than in 2006 in Russia. Today all the basic elements of the politics of the past are present: attempts to inculcate in school a single, centrally-defined, politicized history textbook; the creation of special, politically committed structures, which combine the tasks of organizing historical research and controlling the activities of archives and publishers; attempts to legislatively regulate historical interpretations; and, as is typical in such cases, efforts to legitimize and ideologically justify all of these practices.

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